TIM VAN DE MOLEN

The Mata­mata Pi­ako Dis­trict, like a lot of the Waikato, is cur­rently ex­pe­ri­enc­ing sig­nif­i­cant growth. I be­lieve this is pos­i­tive, and am proud of what the Na­tional govern­ment has done to as­sist with this.

How­ever, strong growth needs to be man­aged proac­tively and with the agility to adapt as re­quired. This is essen­tial to en­sure that we fully cap­ture the po­ten­tial of­fered by this pe­riod of growth. Po­ten­tial that will pro­vide the abil­ity to in­vest in our com­mu­ni­ties, busi­nesses and en­vi­ron­ment.

Po­ten­tial that em­pow­ers busi­nesses and com­mu­ni­ties to in­no­vate, de­velop and grow. Po­ten­tial that will see our al­ready great dis­trict be­come even greater.

I grew up in Mata­mata and have seen the growth and di­ver­si­fi­ca­tion that has oc­curred from when I was at Mata­mata Col­lege, un­til now.

It is amaz­ing to con­sider what the dis­trict has achieved – I would en­cour­age you to re­flect on this. Man­ag­ing growth means en­sur­ing proac­tive in­vest­ment in in­fra­struc­ture, ed­u­ca­tion, health, law and or­der, and the en­vi­ron­ment.

Pos­i­tive eco­nomic growth means we have ca­pac­ity to in­vest in these ar­eas, which in turn strength­ens our com­mu­ni­ties fur­ther.

Re­mem­ber, growth pro­vides op­por­tu­nity.

And the op­por­tu­nity for our dis­trict is mas­sive. I am­con­fi­dent that with the con­tin­ued sup­port of a Na­tional lead govern­ment, we can cap­ture this op­por­tu­nity and I look for­ward to rep­re­sent­ing you to help achieve this.